Five of the 17 Baby Bullet cars will go into service Oct. 22, making one midday round trip. Caltrain will run the cars with its current fleet of locomotives until six new Baby Bullet engines arrive early next year.

Express train schedules will not be implemented until bypass tracks, signal work and other improvements be completed in mid-2004.

The express trains will be able to skip some stations and pass slower trains on the new tracks. Though they can reach 95 mph, the speed limit along the corridor is 79 mph, and the new trains typically will go about 70 mph. Current trains must stop too frequently to go 70 mph for an extended stretch.

Built by Bombardier Corp., the Baby Bullet trains have a new color scheme and new design. The express trains will cost $55 million; it will cost an additional $110 million for the upgraded track, new signals, and other improvements, Caltrain said.

As many as 10 million passengers ride Caltrains annually. The 77-mile system runs through Santa Clara, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

Transit district wants property taxes raised for seismic work

SAN FRANCISCO — The transit district is asking voters in San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties to pass a $1.05 billion bond measure that would raise property taxes to pay for seismic work for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.

BART officials and seismic safety experts warn that a major temblor could damage the transit system so severely it could take nearly two years to completely recover.

Measure BB is one of three transportation tax issues facing voters in the Bay Area on Nov. 5.

Bolstering BART by passing Measure BB would cost property owners an average of $7.80 per $100,000 of assessed property values each year for the next 40 years.

Measure BB opponents object to forcing property owners to pay the price. They say BART riders should foot the bill with higher fares.